Euphoria
by tetradisaster
Summary: Aeris thought that her life couldn't change. She was bound to be only one thing. When Hojo's experiments go too far, that one thing changes drastically. A growing embryo would change the world. But could the world's fragile state handle it? Cloud/Aeris
1. Chapter 1: The Flower Girl

Author Notes – As you can see, this will be my first fanfic. The story will be the life of Aeris Gainsborough, the flower girl in the slums. This 'timeline' of Aeris' life will start the day before she meets Cloud until the day Sephiroth's blade pierces through her chest.

This story isn't all based on the game. I will add twisted plots and mesmerizing storylines, trust me on that one. It's just the beginning, and I can't put all my ideas in this chapter. It's only Chapter One!

This story will be A/C but because the game never really cleared on that, I think it is a bit more plausible than T/C. There will be other pairings, but I'll keep them inside of my brain until their parts come up. I'm going to hide now.

Also, this story will be in first person.

Oh, and the italics are her thoughts and memories. Just letting you know.

And thank Strange and Intoxicating -rsa-, my sister, for editing this to the best she could. Also, why don't you thank her for making me write this in the first place? Hell, thank her for bouncing ideas with me (Which lead to this)…. Why don't you just go read her story, hmmm?

Hope ya guys like it!

Disclaimer – I don't own FFVII or any game, really. I'm just your average teenager, giving people some stories to read and eating away my boredom by writing them.

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**Chapter One - The Flower Girl**

"One carnation please," the little girl reached her hand into her dirty back pocket, grabbing the one coin she had with plans to give it to me. She dropped the small coin into my hand, grabbed the carnation she bought with the other and began skipping away.

I smiled at the sight of the little girl, skipping toward the center of Sector Five with her prize. "_Even in the darkest of places, that girl can still become pleased by the littlest things,_" I sighed peacefully, and went back to work.

I stayed at the church for a couple more hours, selling as much as I possibly could. There was never much business, but it keeps the lights on and food in my mother and my stomachs, if only for a little while. But, staring out at the rest of the slums, I know it could be worse.

I was walking home when I saw a man coming toward me. "_I've seen that man before. His blue suit, his long, black hair in that ponytail is very familiar..._"

"Tseng," I breathed. I was shaking.

Tseng walked over to me in three big strides. "Ah, Aeris, I didn't know you would be here –"

"You know that I work at the church, Tseng. Don't give me that."

"Oh? Well, yes, I did know that, didn't I? Well, unfortunately, I'm not working, and I have no orders to try to come get you yet, so I guess you're lucky." Tseng brushed off some dust that was on his Turk uniform, and went walking along, as if nothing had just happened.

"_Well, that was weird._" I thought. _"He never acted that way before…was he really off work or he just doesn't want me to be captured? He was wearing his Turk uniform..."_

"Mom, I'm home!" I walked into the narrow front door and put my basket of flowers on the wood table.

Mom was at the stove, cooking dinner. "Hello honey, anything good today?"

"Sure, if you call 25 gil good." I put the twenty-five coins on the table, next to the basket. "Well, Mom, at least it'll buy us some more chocobo. I'll get more tomorrow."

"Oh, honey, it's not the money I'm worried about. I'm worried about you. This is the slums, Aeris. There are some very sick people out there and you are quite the attractive young lady. I don't want you to get hurt, sweetie." Mom sighed as she looked away from the food she was preparing to my face. The stress lines around her eyes were more pronounced than I wished them to be.

"Mom, everything's fine. It's not like anyone's going to kidnap me or something," I knew this was a lie, and obviously so did she.

"What about the Shinra, dear? They know that you sell flowers at the church and –"

"I promise to you that I will be fine. Nothing's going to happen to me, okay?" I took my basket and started to go upstairs.

While I was walking up the stairs, I could have sworn that I heard Mom sigh the way she always did at the end of this topic. She knew that I wasn't going to just stop because she wanted me to. Even if it was because of my own safety.

Of course, I understood, but I honestly have a good feeling about this. That something good would happen soon.

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When I got up to my room, the first thing I did was throw the flower basket on the floor and then hop onto my lumpy twin-sized bed. I loved my bed, even though it was harder than a rock; it was because it was the first thing my foster mom gave to me.

"_Aeris, dear, this is your room," Elmyra walked me into the small bedroom, with a smile on her tiring stress-wrinkled face, but yet the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. It was the first smile I had seen in so long. "This is your bed, and that's your dresser. Later you and I will go and get you some new clothes. How's that, hmm?"_

"Aeris, dinner's ready!" Mom yelled, loud enough to break my daydream.

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Dinner was the usual: Chocobo. It really didn't taste that great, but I couldn't complain; it was better than nothing at all. I had hoped that in a little while I would be able to buy my mother and I something else. But for at that moment, it was all that we could afford.

I got my helping of the cooked yellow bird and water then sat down at the table. Mom sat down as well, right across from me as usual, and started eating her meal.

"Mom, why are you so protective of me? I know the Shinra wants me, but it doesn't mean that I can't sell flowers at a _church_, does it? Do you really think that they would come there?" I took a bite of my chocobo and watered it down with my drink. I willfully drank it, too, which could only begin to hint at how bad it tasted.

"Dear, I don't think it. I know it. They want you, and there is no denying that they would go out to the end of the planet just to get you. I'm surprised they haven't even come here yet."

I sighed. The topic was never a pleasant one; it always brought back bad memories of how the injections hurt and how bad the mako smelled. I would always remember that faint rust-and-alcohol stench. At least that's how it smelled to me. Rust and alcohol. I remembered it as if that stench was here with me.

"I know, Mom," that was all I could say.

Once I was done with my dinner, I put my dirty dish in the sink and went upstairs to go to bed. I didn't know why I was so tired; all I did was walk around and give a couple of children flowers.

I went to my lumpy bed once again, thinking of the little sleep I would get. Even if people didn't live anywhere by me, the screams and the sound of gunshots at Sector Five still rang in my ears every night.

I laid there, I just thought about random things: the Shinra and what they would do to me if they ever caught me, how I was going to keep my mother and I alive, since I barely made any money and Mom didn't really make much either. While I was thinking, I finally drifted into a deep sleep.

"_My arm hurts. Please, stop it!" I begged the scientist as he put the needle in my arm, and pressed the top of the object. I screamed fairly loudly, the pain was too much to bear. _

_"The S Cells should most likely dominate the G Cells and..." the scientist was writing insanely on his notepad, making a few mistakes now and then, and then scratching the paper so hard I thought he was going to break both the paper and the pen. "Since she's a Cetra, the S Cells should dominate the G Cells! I am not doing this wrong! I am a genius! Genius I tell you! I'm never wrong!"_

I woke up suddenly, tears in my eyes. _"I have been having that nightmare quite a lot lately,"_ I thought while I was trying to decipher the symbols on my clock.

"5:23," I mumbled, and slammed myself on the hard bed. I didn't want to get up this early, but then again, I always did. It wasn't any different.

"Wake up sweetie! You need to water the flowers before the sun comes up, so no one sees you." Mom turned on the light, and I saw her standing there, fully awake, smiling the smile that I've always loved.

I groaned, got up, and went downstairs to start my awfully long day.

* * *

It was as cold as ever, and being in my thin pink dress, I was freezing to the point where I thought my teeth were going to break.

I watered the flowers, picked up some materia that had been there for a couple of days, and ran back to the house where it would be nice and toasty.

When I got into the house, Mom was upstairs, doing laundry. The water could be heard from ten miles away; it was banging so hard into the bathtub. _"Who would do laundry at almost 6 o' clock in the morning?"_ I wasn't in the greatest mood. Maybe I should have gone to bed earlier.

I went upstairs to see my mother, lying on the floor, sleeping.

I sighed. "She works herself way too much," another sigh escaped from my lips. I brought Mom into her room, tucked her in, and kissed her forehead. _"You never know when someone could leave you,"_ I thought. _"I've had someone leave me before, right when it was the least expected."_

I looked at the clock by the bed, and realized it was time to go to the church to sell more flowers. I hoped that some more people would actually buy today, but I highly doubted it.

I turned off the running-hot water, got my basket of flowers from my room, and left.

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I was talking to a homeless child about how to grow daisies when five people came rolling out of a mako reactor. I could see them, but I couldn't interact with them because they were too far away. Even though they were far away, you could still hear their whole conversation.

"Move out! Meet at the back of the last train in fifteen minutes." The big, black man said with much enthusiasm.

He kind of scared me a little, I had to admit.

When he said that, three people went to leave to their destination.

"Hey –"

"If it's about your money, save it until we get to the hideout. There might be people listenin'." The big man was obviously trying to distract the other man. I could tell that he didn't want to give him money- that I was sure of.

The big black male turned to leave, obviously to what I heard, going to the train station.

The spiky blonde-haired man walked over to me, his expression one that I couldn't read.

"Hey, what happened?" I was very curious, since seconds after they left something blew up. I thought it was the mako reactor they exited out of, but I wasn't exactly sure.

"Oh, it's nothing. Hey, listen..." He was obviously trying to keep something from me, but I honestly didn't mind.

"Wait, I don't see flowers like that often," the man was trying to distract me, I could tell.

"You want one? It's only a gil," I said. I was practically hyperventilating. He was cute, but he looked a lot older than me. Maybe it wasn't that he was older, but that he had a hardened look to him. He reminded me of a war veteran.

"Sure, why not?" he reached for his pocket, just like the little girl the day before did, and gave me a gil. In exchange I gave him the flower and he smiled.

There were butterflies in my stomach.

"Thanks," he said, and walked slowly, inconspicuously, in the same direction the big black man and the others had.

"Oh, oh, you're quite welcome!" I screamed excitedly back at the blonde-haired man, already half way toward the train station.

I hoped he heard me. I thought it would be the last time I would ever see him.

How wrong I was.

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	2. Chapter 2: Shinra Takes It's Toll

Author Notes – Hello, all! I'm sorry that I haven't updated in a while—I've been busy and I couldn't think up anything that was entertaining until now. But I shall update more!

And Tseng is supposed to be a little OOC here. I know he's usually not like 'stupid bitch, blahblahblah' but that's something that I will be more focused on later. There's a reason to his dirty attitude.

Disclaimer – I don't own FFVII or any game. I probably never will own anything, which is sad, because if I did own FFVII, Zack would definitely not be dead. ):

**Chapter Two – Shinra Takes It's Toll**

I couldn't get that man out of my mind, no matter how hard I tried. Those eyes are strangely familiar, was he in SOLDIER? But if he was, why would he blow up a Mako Reactor? Maybe he was a traitor...

I didn't like thinking of him that way; maybe Shinra had something up their sleeve… it wouldn't have surprised me.

I kept selling flowers until dusk. I didn't get much, I hadn't expected to. It was always a hard thing to do in the slums, when everyone was either a full-fledged criminal or had no money. If people had money, why would they live down in the slums, anyway? No one lived in the slums because they want to.

I started to walk home, but I didn't really want to go there; I wanted to be alone. When I felt like this, I always went to the church, the only place where I could hear my ancestors and feel free from the binding of my life in the slums.

So I turned around and walked to my sanctuary.

At the church I would allow my mind to wander—it wasn't a bad thing when no one was around. I could hear my ancestors, and talk to them freely without being noticed there. And besides, the church was beautiful. It was the only place that actually grew flowers in the slums... and the only place that had any good memories. I always felt like I was wanted there—like I was supposed to be there.

I walked up to the bed of flowers and plopped myself down beside them. It was always comfortable there, even if it was a hardwood floor.

I let my eyes take a rest. I'd been up since 5 in the morning, and I needed to take a break.

I let my mind wander—and it drifted off into another nightmare.

_I couldn't stop screaming. The pain was overwhelming, like someone just ripped out my intestines. _

_The scientist slapped me in the face, thinking it would shut me up. "Will you shut up, girl? It can't hurt that bad. And you're giving me a headache!"_

_He deepened the needle in my arm. I could feel my entire body go numb. _

"_Why can't you let me go? I haven't done anything wrong, and I'm not special!" I cried. I couldn't take the pain any longer. It was just too much…_

"_Don't act stupid! You are of the Cetra—the only survivor." The scientist took the needle out of my right arm, refilled it, and put it in my left. A new wave of pain came to me. _

"_I still need to think of what to do to you… your species needs to expand!" He laughed like a total maniac, like he was invincible._

_Hojo then picked me up and threw me into the cell where I slept. He looked at me like I was a piece of meat; it made me want to throw up then and there._

"_Soon enough," he snickered, and left without saying another word._

I woke up in a daze; it felt like I'd only slept for about 20 minutes. I looked at my watch, hoping that I hadn't been too late. "Oh no," I sighed. I couldn't believe I had slept for so long.

It had been 6 hours. Mom would want my head for staying out late—she always had panicked when I would come home late. I hoped she was all right, and she wasn't worrying about me too much…

At that moment I heard a blood-curdling scream. It was my mother's, I just knew it. I sprinted out of there immediately.

A thousand thoughts came into mind, a thousand possibilities. Worry flooded into my brain. What if the Shinra got her? I wouldn't have forgiven myself if that happened. What if it was a robbery? Kidnapping? It wasn't good…

I sprinted down the Sector Five slums, there were people looking at me like I was insane, people looking at me like they were insane. I kept running. I had to get to my mother, she was in danger.

I was at my house and I could see the Shinra helicopters leave. They were probably looking for me, and my mother refused to tell them where I was, trying to protect me…

I ran into the house and saw blood, so much of it. I ran up the stairs… to find my mother, my beautiful mother, dead.

She had multiple gun wounds, mostly in her chest. The crimson liquid kept spilling out from her, practically flooding the room with the scent of copper and tangy gunpowder. It couldn't be… the only person who had taken care of me, the person I cared for most, was lying on the ground, dead, because of my stupidity.

I knelt down next to her bleeding corpse and picked her up. She was heavy, but I didn't stop. I started down the stairs to give her my respects. This was my fault… but why would they want kill her? Why would they hurt her? Was it because she refused to give them what the Shinra wanted, or was it something else?

A sob escaped my throat. I put my mother on the ground, by all the flowers, and lay with her. I was covered in my mother's blood, but I didn't care. Mom was dead… nothing mattered anymore.

I turned around, and saw a video tape by my door. I got up and went to it. I looked it over for a moment before wiping a few tears from my eyes and going up to my room, putting the filthy black tape in the VCR.

"Hello, Aeris," it was President Shinra's voice. I remembered him on the helicopter with me when I first was kidnapped, telling his Shinra troops how this was 'one step closer to the Promised Land', babbling on about how my kidnapping would bring them eternal happiness. I hadn't known much about the Promised Land then, all I knew was that it was the Ancient's—or rather, the Cetra's, land.

I paid more attention to the video. It seemed like I missed some details, so I rewound it to the beginning.

"Hello, Aeris. If you are watching this tape it means your mother is dead. If you want to know more, then keep watching." A couple tears escape my eyes. This was Shinra's way of doing things—downright dirty. It made me want to puke.

The video then switched to President Shinra, my mother, Tseng, and Heidegger in my mother's room. Tseng was holding her down against the wall, gun to her head. His eyes were full of fury, but his face looked in control. "Elmyra, tell me where Aeris is, and we won't have to hurt you. An order is an order."

"I won't say anything! I won't tell you where she is!" my mom looked to be on the verge of tears, trying to get hold of her balance. Tseng then let go of his grip on her and threw her to the ground. This is not the way Tseng usually would act… especially to my mother. Tseng was usually proper and orderly, but it seemed now, because the President was personally there, he needed to act like a total beast. He truly disgusted me.

My mother was trying to protect me, trying to save me from the mess I had made. I would've gone with them if I knew they would be doing this to her.

"Well, that's just too bad, because you don't have a choice! Unless you want to die, of course! Gya ha ha ha!" Heidegger's horse laugh made me sick. He was disgusting—they all were.

"Look, Elmyra, do as I say. Tell me where the Ancient has gone… you know we need her, dammit!" President Shinra went up to my mother and slapped her in the face. I could feel my rage burning up inside me, but I stayed in control, still paying my full attention to the video. I didn't want to see it, because I knew what the outcome was—but I needed to see what happened. Why in the world would they hurt the only one I loved? How could someone be this selfish?

"No! I won't do it!" mom sobbed. I couldn't believe she would rather die than have me in danger. Granted, I would have done the same thing, but this was just wrong. She could've lived a long life, if it wasn't for them... I sobbed a little louder. This couldn't be real; it had to be a dream. A nightmare worse than I could have ever imagined.

Multiple things happen then. Mom got up from the ground and started attacking the President, screaming her head off. Heidegger ran away, like a child. Tseng flipped out, and started shooting… more times then he needed to. Mom then fell to the ground, at the place where I found her dead.

Tseng threw down his gun and put a foot on my mother's stomach. "Stupid bitch, don't put your filthy hands on the President,"

Tseng then walked towards the President to see if he was alright and helped him regain his composure.

Wait a minute. That was definitely not like Tseng… what was going on? He would've never call my mother such things. Or was he just trying to gain our trust? Is that what Tseng really is like?

The video then turns back on President Shinra. "Now that your mother is dead, we are one step closer to obtaining the Promised Land, and obtaining you. We will find you, Aeris Gainsborough, no matter where you are. No matter how long it takes. The Shinra will get you."

The video then stops, and self-destructs.

I was furious. I wiped off the last of my remaining tears and ran to where my mother was. But she was gone. She already returned to the lifestream, where she would be happy. I ran to where she once lay and fell to my knees.

"Mom," I sobbed. I couldn't believe they did this to her, just so they could have me. Nothing mattered anymore. I didn't care if they found me. I didn't care if they made me into an experiment. My life changed drastically over the past 2 hours, because they wanted to make me their puppet.

I would find them. And I would make them pay for what they did.

**Review, please! **

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